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Gravy for Poultry

A gravy made from boiled giblets, flour, butter, salt, pepper, and turkey drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Gravy for Poultry

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the giblets until very tender and chop them finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the liquid from boiling the giblets.

  3. Thicken the liquid with flour.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and butter.

  5. Add the chopped giblets and the drippings from the roasted turkey.

  6. Stir well and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy as its starch gelatinises when heated.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, richer flavour and smoother mouthfeel.
Drippings from roasted turkey
Supply concentrated meat flavour and fat that carry the gravy's taste.
Giblets
Contribute savoury meaty flavour to the broth and texture from the chopped pieces.

The step that matters

Thicken the liquid with flour. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid while stirring, or it forms lumps and the gravy stays raw-tasting. Starch only thickens fully once it has been heated and dispersed evenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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